One Taste
by LadyOverkill
Summary: It has been five years since the battle of the Northern Crater, and the organisation formed from the ashes of Cloud & co. face a new battle for the survival of the world. FF7FF9 XOver. VinKuja. Possibly more.
1. Chapter 1

**One Taste**

**AN** – My new FF/X-Over fanfiction. I'll post the disclaimer here: we all know none of these characters and settings are mine, as much I would love to be able to say otherwise. **The rating is high because of future chapters**. **Any obscure/vague characters will be detailed in the next chapter, so I'm sorry if you're confused.** Thanks and enjoy!

**Chapter One**

_The man pushed his lips against those of the boy, his hands tugging the soft hair that tumbled around his young shoulders, pulling his face closer to his own. The older man tasted the boy, savouring his sweet lips as his tongue gently explored his mouth. He bit softly on his lower lip, causing the boy to gasp and submit further to his kiss. They stayed that way for a while, the younger one's fingers tracing patterns on the back of the man who held him in his arms, one metal-encased hand still clutched to the back of his head and the other more human hand exploring the inside of the boy's thigh, edging ever close to the place his slender fingers longed to be most of all. A flush rose in the cheeks of the boy as he felt his lover's fingers brush against that most sensitive of areas, and he struggled to disguise his excitement as the older man dragged his tongue down the length of his neck, pausing to litter kisses across his collarbone._

_Pulling the boy's body closer to his own, the man slipped his hands beneath the folds of silk that hung loosely from his waist, relishing the feel of his hips as he passed over their angles with his thumb. Returning his attention to the boy's lips, he tasted him again, stroking the soft skin stretched over his cheekbones as he shared with his young lover a deep and lingering kiss. Desperate to continue, the older man reached for the ornate brooch that acted a pin to hold together the folds of silk adorning the boy's body, examining the catch mechanism with his fingernails. Stilling kissing the young man beneath him with intent, he pushed the catch on the brooch, taking pleasure in the way the boy arched his back to allow the silk to slip away from his supple form, exposing his bone-china skin to the eyes of the man above him. Pinning the boy down, the older man knelt over him, allowing his hand to travel the length of the beauty beneath him, his eager fingers edging ever closer to…_

…_ecstasy._

The footsteps and loud noise from the room above brought the two men crashing back to reality, their eyes springing open and their hands ceasing all wanderings. The older man jumped to his feet, composing himself briefly before leaving the room, pulling back his wave of ebony hair with a crimson headscarf. The boy watched him leave with a strong sense of disappointment and embarrassment welling inside him, the latter increasing tenfold as he looked down at himself to see the state he was in. Rearranging his dressings as best as he could, he snapped the brooch in place and straightened himself up (or as much as was possible without the aid of a mirror). He waited a moment for the red in his cheeks to fade to pink before disappearing from the room that stood beneath the Shinra Mansion, the only sign of him ever being there a faint scent of the unfamiliar on the air.

* * *

"What's the problem?" Vincent asked, his blood red eyes surveying the scene before him.

A young woman was lying in a heap at the bottom of the recently renovated spiral staircase that led down to the basement of the Mansion, a shock of black hair obscuring her face. She wore all black, the only distinguishing feature in her plain (but not entirely unflattering) outfit being a fluorescent badge that was pinned to her chest. 'FreeWORLD #7' was emblazoned across its reflective surface, indicating the girl's position of authority in the team that now resided in the once-abandoned Nibelheim house. Brushing herself down and trying to fix a smile on her face, Yuffie Kisaragi scrambled to her feet and handed Vincent Valentine a piece of crumpled paper.

"There's no problem as such Vinnie, Cloud just sent me down here to get a book he wants. I slipped on the steps and skinned my knees a little…I hope I didn't make too much of a ruckus?"

"You fell…_all_ the way down the stairs?" Vincent asked incredulously, disbelieving in the clumsiness of the woman stood before him.

"Yeah, well…I don't think the guys laid the steps too good, a couple were out of line and…" the former-ninja allowed her sentence to trail off into nothingness, a sheepish look plastered on her embarrassed face. Rather than face further questioning from the man before her, she thrust the piece of paper into his hands, casting a curious glance at the unbuttoned state his usually immaculate black shirt was in.

Vincent, perfectly aware of the girl's questioning gaze, quickly read the words scrawled on the paper and turned round, leading Yuffie into the darkness that was the Shinra Basement. Wondering briefly whether the boy would still be in the room when he had finished with Cloud's errands, he led the way to the library that stood at the end of the blackened corridor. "May I ask why Cloud wants this book? It's something of an _odd_ request. I thought we were finished with all of this nonsense?"

"I can't tell ya a thing; Vin…your guess is as good as mine. He just came into HQ this morning, looking all flustered as he sometimes does, gave me this piece of paper and told me to come down here a-sap and see if it was still lying around. I had training with Tifa first thing, and then Cid asked me to see to the Dish…so yeah, I only just got round to it and seeing as I don't know my way around the library I figured it couldn't hurt to scout you out." Yuffie grinned and limped behind Vincent as they walked between the towering rows of books, the FreeWORLD #7 paying little attention to the titles of the tomes that the man scanned over.

Vincent nodded vaguely as Yuffie continued her relentless ramblings, not really interested in what she had to say as he knew that her words would be of little value to him. Since the defeat of Sephiroth at the Northern Crater some five years past, the heroic group of friends that had been (not entirely wholly) responsible for the saving of the world had moved into the dust-infested mansion that stood in the centre of a thriving Nibelheim and set up FreeWORLD – an organisation designed to fight against the evils of the world whilst providing freedom for the law-abiding people that scattered the planet of Midgardia. Cloud Strife, the former-mercenary turned leader had immediately taken charge, arranging the transformation for the building from a mansion to an acting head quarters for the operation. Cid Highwind had asserted himself as 'vice president', providing the transport for the group through his beloved airship - and so on had the contributions from the team continued (it was Barrett's idea to introduce a 'hierarchy' and Tifa's to adopt uniforms) up until Yuffie – who had suggested they pool all of their materia to create a 'Super Magick' – who had subsequently been awarded position '#7', which was in other words the job of the lackey. She spent most of her time running around after the other group members, completing any tasks that her 'superiors' felt weren't worthy of their own time. Vincent had been very surprised when the badges had been handed out to find his emblazoned with the number five, having expected to be the bottom of the list. Miss Kisaragi was in fact the one to be awarded the position of Bottom – although she didn't really seemed to be bothered by the fact that she was required to answer to everyone else. _Maybe she's finally grown up_, Valentine thought as he pulled a dusty book from the nearest shelf. _Though of course, I won't hold my breath. _

"This is what you are looking for." He said, placing the heavy tome in the hands of the young woman. She threatened to buckle under its weight for a moment, before regaining her bearings and holding it tightly against her chest. The cover of the book was damaged and the pages worn with use, but the title was still very much readable in the dim light of the library – 'The Jenova Project' was printed across the front in neat gold letters.

"Thanks Vinnie!" Yuffie chirped, her body now that of a woman in her early twenties but her eyes still those of a contented teenage girl. "I'll bring it back down here for you when Cloud's done with it, it's probably just for some background information on an operation or something…you know what he's like, Mr. Thorough and all."

Vincent nodded, watching Yuffie as she left the library whilst still hobbling tentatively on her left foot. He waited until he could hear her footsteps landing softly on the spiral staircase that lead back up to the main HQ before leaving the library, walking quickly to the room where he spent his days and nights contemplating many different aspects of life (he had earned himself the nickname of 'FreeWORLD's philosopher'). Upon closing the heavy door behind him he looked around hesitantly, silently hoping that the boy had not left, but knowing in his heart that he had. He walked slowly over to where he had lain with the young man, his ebony hair entangled with the silver wisps sprouting from the boy's head. He licked his lips, a fleeting fragrance of the creature whom he adored still gracing his mouth and the tangles of his hair. Pulling the headscarf from around his face (the only possession of his that remained from the time before Sephiroth's demise), Vincent sank to the floor and closed his ruby eyes, tracing a circle on his cheek with the metal claw of his makeshift hand.


	2. Chapter 2

**One Taste**

**AN** – It's been a while, but I get around to all my neglected projects eventually, honest. XD I know this story's a little slow in starting, but it's going somewhere...I promise. Maybe. As always, I don't own any of the FF characters or settings and as much as I'd love to smother Vincent in chocolate and actually eat him,I can't. sobs

**Chapter Two**

The boy gazed out of the window, taking in the view of the town of Nibelheim as it stretched out below him. A few neglected houses were all that remained of the bustling mountain town that had once existed five years ago – now it was a growing base of tourism and trade, people curious as to the operations of FreeWORLD ensuring that the hotels were constantly fully booked. Most of the visitors were disappointed however, as the residents of the Shinra Mansion rarely wandered out into the town itself, Cloud in particular preferring to stay locked up in his room, scouring over maps and books, searching for something that he was still yet to find.

The boy blinked and looked disinterestedly away from the town, the unimpressive view no longer capable of entertaining him for longer than a few seconds. He was the only occupant of the Shinra Mansion that was not a member of FreeWORLD – there was no emblem attached to his uniform, but the other members did not discard him as 'a mere civilian'. He had arrived in Midgardia a little over a year ago, washed up on the coast of Costa Del Sol with nothing but the clothes on his back and a few tattered feathers tied into his hair. His appearance was that of a young man, barely out of his teens if indeed out of them at all. Silver hair fell in soft waves around his shoulders; his dark eyes the only thing telling of the crime and horror he had witnessed. Nobody in FreeWORLD had ever seen him before, and the first few weeks after his arrival revealed nothing as to his origins.

One thing was apparent, however: Vincent Valentine instantly adored him. The others asked no questions of him, but it was plain for all to see that the colour shading his eyes when he looked upon the stranger was of a little more than curiosity.

It had taken a few months, but the boy had eventually regained some of his memory, gradually revealing himself to the natives around him. Cloud had made the executive decision to keep him with them in the Shinra Mansion: he himself didn't know why he'd decided to do this, he'd just passed it off as being 'one of his feelings' and insisted the stranger take the guestroom. Over the coming days and nights they learned very little about the boy with the silver hair, but it was enough to come to one definite, disturbing conclusion: he was not from Midgardia. He was not of their world.

He told them his name was Kuja, and that it didn't matter how old he was. He said that he was from somewhere long since lost and that he had a brother, though he was likely dead to him now. Cloud didn't understand what he had meant by that. He told them that he didn't know why or how he had washed up on the shores of Costa Del Sol, insisting that he should be dead 'in the mist'. He told them, quietly with something close to fear in his eyes, that he had once harnessed great power. What worried Cloud wasn't the power; it was the fact that the boy had used past tense to describe it. His limited recollections exhausted, the boy had resigned to his chamber in FreeWORLD's HQ, only venturing downstairs to the basement to visit the library.

It was there that he had chanced upon Vincent, who had not joined the rest of the group on the Highwind to Costa Del Sol. Spying upon him from behind one of the bookshelves, he had watched with growing interest the way the pale man's clawed hand had turned the pages, and the way his ruby eyes made space for nothing but the words before him. He too was dressed in the uniform of this curious resistance faction, a battered crimson scarf the only telling sign of the battles he had faced before. The boy watched him for hours that day, content to observe the older man's serenity as he read page after page, chapter after chapter, book after book. It was only when the FreeWORLD #5 left to leave that he happened upon the boy, staring at him casually from behind the shelves, his dark eyes fixed on the crimson orbs placed before him. Polite words had been exchanged, a handshake had taken place, and then Vincent had swept from the room, leaving the door swinging to a slow halt in his wake.

Kuja, his dark eyes brightened with wonder at the strangely quiet man, did not follow him out. He stayed in the library, dragging his supple fingers along the spines of the books the older man had been reading. There was something sensual in his movement, in the way he caressed the books the older man had earlier assessed. In that instant, what had previously been curiosity developed into obsession, and before leaving the library some hours later, the strange boy took one of the silver feathers from his hair and laid it between the pages of a dust-covered book. Beneath the layers of grime, the title read 'The Jenova Project' in neat gold print.

From his room in FreeWORLD's HQ, the boy named Kuja thought back on his first meeting with Vincent with something close to melancholy. There had been many encounters since then, twice more in the library, once upon the staircase and countless times within the older man's chambers, and each had been more desperate and lustful than the last. There was something between the two men that they both so insatiably craved. In Vincent, the boy saw knowledge, wisdom, experience and enigma. In Kuja, the older man saw youth, beauty and the same mystery that the other saw in himself. The stranger often thought about the other members of FreeWORLD, curious as to whether they had discovered the obscure affair unfolding beneath their roof. He didn't know much about the other members and had only shared fleeting glances with them in the corridors of the mansion during his first few months there. He knew them only to be people Vincent trusted, but was not entirely sure that this was reason enough to trust them himself.

A knock on the door brought the boy crashing back to reality. Removing himself from his perch by the window, he allowed his heart to settle in his chest before approaching the door, hopes for a stranger with crimson eyes to be standing beyond it clouding his mind. It was not, however, Vincent who stood in the doorway. It was a man of no more than twenty five years, broad-shouldered and strong. He was tall, though not remarkably so. His blond hair stood out at impossible angles from his head, the deep crevices beneath his eyes the only things that dared betray his youth and vigour. He wore no badge pinned to his uniform, but Kuja was fully aware of whom this man was; Cloud Strife, the leader of FreeWORLD and the man to whom he owed his current situation.

"Kuja," the blond man said, striding into the room and closing the door behind him. He eyed the boy wearily, paying particular attention to his face. "You look well. I'm sorry that I could not find time to speak with you sooner. It's been difficult to find time for anything lately."

The blond spoke gently, but still with obvious authority. Kuja had spoken with him only once before, at Costa Del Sol shortly after he had found himself washed up on the beach. He had asked many questions, but received little in the way of answers. He had seen him only a handful of times since being housed in the Shinra mansion, and had not spoken to him once upon those occasions.

"I have come to speak with you about a book."

Kuja nodded, observing with vague interest as Cloud sat himself down on the immaculately made bed. He opted not to speak; though rare their conversations, he found something wonderfully lyrical in Cloud's voice, and much preferred to listen to him than speak himself. There was something comforting and familiar in the blonde's sullen tones.

FreeWORLD's #1 took the boy's nod as a sign to continue, and pushed his hand into the pocket of his uniform. From it he produced a feather, frayed and battered with time and ruin. It was the feather from Kuja's hair, the feather that he had pushed inside a book many months ago, that first night in Vincent's library.

"I found this inside a book I have recently decided to look into, purely for research purposes. I'd like to know what it was doing there. I know it to be yours, for you're the only resident of this mansion who wears feathers in their hair."

Kuja considered a lie, but realised he had no reason to spin one. He didn't think the truth would hurt, though he was careful not to reveal anything of Vincent. "I put it there, one of the first nights I arrived here. I was exploring the library and must have put it in the book without realizing. I couldn't even tell you the title of-"

"It was called The Jenova Project." Cloud interrupted, fixing his steely gaze on the boy. "Does that title mean anything to you?"

"No," Kuja replied, though he was not entirely convinced that was true. Jenova…there was something unearthly about it. Something familiar. "I was browsing, taking random books from the shelves. Perhaps I marked a page of interest without realising. I'm sorry to have caused any unrest."

Cloud nodded, still scrutinising the younger man standing before him. "An odd coincidence? Perhaps. I requested to see this book today, for research purposes as I mentioned earlier, and I just found it bizarre that one of your feathers should be placed between the pages which I sought to read. Odd, but not impossible it seems. I'm sorry to bother you Kuja, please pretend as though I've never been up here."

The boy nodded, and watched the blond as he stood from the bed, making his way back to the door. He took great comfort in the presence of this man, and suddenly found himself not wanting him to leave. He thought of Vincent then, and the lightest shade of pink rushed across his countenance.

"Kuja," Cloud added, turning in the doorway, "You know I must ask, though I apologise for doing so. Do you remember anything else? Or is there perhaps something you'd like to tell me?"

The boy dropped his head, recollections of his earlier encounter with the red-eyed man rushing to the front of his mind. Bringing himself under control, he looked up to where the resistance leader still stood, eyeing him thoughtfully. "No," he replied slowly, his mind still running over the word Jenova. "I thought for a moment that I had remembered something, but it appears not. Jenova seemed frightfully familiar for a moment, though I suppose it's because it's so dreadfully similar to genome."

The lashings of colour present in Cloud's face vanished in an instant, his face awash with pallid hues of white. "Genome?" he whispered, realisation dawning on his face.

"Yes," the boy continued, his back turned to the blond man. He looked out of the window once again, down on the blissfully ignorant scenes that made up the daily tourist industry of the new-look Nibelheim. "It's a word that's no longer applicable, and that was probably never applicable here. My brother, he…I don't know, perhaps I was one too." His last few words were little more than a fragment of a whisper, but FreeWORLD's leader had no problem in plucking them from the air. Closing the door, he made his way away from the guestroom where the silver-haired boy was staying, returning once again to his own chambers.

Kuja remained before the window for a while, watching as the sun wound its way across the rooftops. He dwelled on the word Jenova, not sensing any urgent significance in it. He wondered if mentioning the genomes to Cloud had been a good idea, sure that a further mention of his brother would only call for further scrutiny of his memories. In truth, the boy had not forgotten a thing of his life before; he knew who he had been, what he had done. He did not know why he wasn't dead however, and nor did he know where he was now. All he knew was that he desperately wanted to see that man with the metal claw again, no matter how long the trail of feathers he'd have to leave.


End file.
